Roosevelt's 1905 visit remembered

Less than a week before his 47th birthday in 1905, the nation's 26th President honored St. Augustine with an official visit.

The trip through southern states by President Theodore Roosevelt in October 1905 was front page news in The St. Augustine Evening Record for its duration.

Today and Saturday, Roosevelt re-enactor James Foote will bring that period in the city's history to life including giving Roosevelt's original speech as he did at the Castillo de San Marcos. All events are free and open to the public.

In the days leading up to the 1905 visit, Record stories detailed the plans.Among the front page stories was one on Oct. 12, 1905, in which stores were asked to close from 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Oct. 21, in honor of the president's visit, and residents were asked to decorate their homes. The Record also said a committee was appointed to "use their influence in closing the saloons from 5 o'clock Saturday afternoon until Monday morning."

The Board of Trade, the predecessor of the St. Johns County Chamber of Commerce, coordinated the visit that included attendance at the speech at the Castillo on Oct. 21, a dinner afterward at the Valencia Hotel, attendance on Sunday morning at Memorial Presbyterian Church, and a swim at North Beach Point.

The surprise swim, however, The Record reported, caused him to move up the schedule for a drive through the city and "consequently those who were looking for him were disappointed."

But The Record also reported on the swim saying the president stayed in the water for nearly an hour.

The Record reported comments by Roosevelt on three different occasions.

At the Castillo, he spoke on good citizenship and gave a passing reference to the division during the Civil War. "Now fortunately we are past, long past, the time of division and there are no sectional lines."

He told his audience that the first time he was in Florida, he was in Tampa with his regiment in the Spanish-American War, "and of course that was strictly a business trip and I didn't have a change to look about and enjoy anything."

At the end of the dinner at the Valencia Hotel, he said, "I do indeed appreciate the reception you have given me in this, the oldest historic city in the United States and the hospitality with which you have followed it."

When he returned to the Florida East Coast Railway station to board his train on Oct. 22, he told those in his entourage, "You cannot emphasize too strongly my keen sense of appreciation," The Record reported.

All totaled, The Record said Roosevelt spent 27 hours in St. Augustine. The crowd gathered at the station was estimated to be "fully 2,000 people."

Readers seeing the account of Roosevelt's departure in the Oct. 23 edition, also may have seen on the front page a related story: "Teddy, the Big Bear Flees to Woods for Safety," was the headline.

The story said Whitney's 400-pound bear escaped from the alligator farm yesterday (Sunday, Oct. 22) and was, as of that Monday, "roaming the woods."

It further said, "The bear's name is Teddy and it is supposed that when he heard that Teddy Roosevelt, the famous and mighty bear hunter was in town, he bolted for the woods and sought a hiding place. This is about the only plausible explanation that can be offered in justification of the actions of this heretofore well-behaved bruin. No doubt he will return to camp on learning that the President has gone."

Roosevelt went to Alabama as The Record reported, but there was no further mention of the bear in the days following. Roosevelt celebrated his Oct. 27 birthday at sea.